Lithuania provokes two great powers, China and Russia, at the same time, as if its national strength is so strong. After all, Lithuania is a country that declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and if it wants to exchange for the trust and support of the West, it still has to hand over the "vote".
How strong is Lithuania's military power, and how did it break away from 50 years of Soviet rule?
Lithuania is a small country, its land area is small, its population is only more than 2 million, its armed forces are small, its army and navy equipment are backward and very poor, and if a military conflict breaks out between Russia, even a small Russian armored force will not be able to stop it.
(1) How many troops does Lithuania have?
Lithuania is a former Soviet republic, but it does not have much abundant martial virtues, and the total armed forces of the country are about 20,000 people, which are divided into land, sea and air, special forces, and reserves. The largest number of people in Lithuania is the army, but their army looks like a children's excavator in a big country, brothers, put "that's it" on the public screen. The establishment of the Lithuanian Army is three infantry brigades plus an engineer battalion, with a total number of about 10,000 people, and about 5,000 people in reserve. After all, this guy was born in the former Soviet Union, how rich can he be?
However, although the strength is not worth mentioning, the sense of presence is not low, and he is very keen to be a pawn, forming a grass ring for the United States of America, often participating in NATO and EU military exercises, and also going to Afghanistan. But they are of little use, as MacArthur said, they are of little use, just to add some political flavor to the United Nations forces. After all, Lithuania doesn't even have a tank, and it still wants to fight? Isn't this pure fun?
(2) Shabby Lithuanian Air Force and outrageous Navy
Speaking of Lithuania's air force, people used to be wide, once in 1940 had 118 aircraft, according to the land area of the people, a lot, after all, it is only 65,000 square kilometers in size, which is equivalent to the area of two Taiwan provinces, now think about it, those security brigades in Taiwan Province are also strong enough. But now Lithuania is so poor that it has only 14 planes, like toys, and there are no main fighters. Later, while the Russians were busy bringing down the Soviet Union, Lithuania hurriedly came out independently, but it didn't get anything decent, and the Lithuanian Air Force at that time only had a few An-2 "pesticide planes".
Later, in 2004, the Lithuanian buddy joined NATO, so he began to fly himself, and the airspace was basically handed over to NATO for protection, and then the North sent planes to come over at the right time. The Lithuanian Air Force is basically nothing, with only three L-39 trainer attack aircraft, one Cessna 172 propeller aircraft, three C-27J transport aircraft, and two L-410 transport aircraft. In addition, two Mi-17 helicopters and three French "Dolphin" helicopters, one of the few assets left by the Soviet Union, are a bunch of tatters anyway.
If the Lithuanian Air Force is shabby, then the Lithuanian Navy is simply lonely and empty. The Lithuanian Navy has a staffing of more than 600 people, the main warship is purchased from Denmark, and the tonnage is as high as 300 tons of patrol boats, which are basically not as good as fishing boats, and the Lithuanian Navy also has three second-hand minesweepers, which are aimed at the configuration of Mongolia.
Lithuania's military power is small and weak, with the following main features:
1. Small size: The Lithuanian army has only about 15,000 active personnel, of which about 6,500 are in the army. This is one of the smallest armies among NATO countries.
2. Old equipment: Lithuania's weapons and equipment are mainly from the Soviet period, including tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, etc. The technical level of this equipment is low, and most of it has been discontinued for many years. In recent years, a certain amount of new Western equipment has been introduced, but it is still relatively old.
3. The Air Force and Navy are weak: Lithuania has only a few fighters and helicopter gunships, and almost no transport and attack aircraft. The Navy has only a few small ships and no heavy warships.
4. Western dependence: Lithuania's military security is highly dependent on the support of the United States and NATO. The United States continues to deploy anti-aircraft missiles and troops to conduct military exercises in Lithuania to ensure its security. Without Western support, Lithuania's military strength will be difficult to independently contain external threats.
5. Limited military spending: Lithuania spends a relatively small amount of defense at around 2% of GDP. This makes it difficult to update outdated weapons and equipment on a large scale and to strengthen military strength.
How did Lithuania, with only 2 million people, break away from 50 years of Soviet rule?
Lithuania organized 1 million people to walk to the border and blocked the attack of 500,000 Soviet troops on Lithuania.
In the late 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, Lithuania was the vanguard of separatist forces in the Soviet republics, and its leaders, the Landsbergis family, had a prominent history of resistance to Russia, his great-grandfather participated in the 1863 uprising, his grandfather played an important role in the founding of the country in 1918, and his father was a minister in the anti-Soviet provisional government in 1941. In March 1990, Lithuania declared independence, and in February of the following year, 90 per cent of the referendum was in favour of independence. On September 6 of the same year, the Soviet Union officially recognized the status of the country.
Lithuania firmly "returned to Europe", joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, and entered the eurozone on New Year's Day in 2015. From the perspective of economic and social data, the GDP of the company in 2016 was 42.7 billion US dollars, and the three industries accounted for 4%, 45% and 51%. Lithuania, once known as the "Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union", has world-class experts in the fields of biotechnology, lasers, communications, information technology, thousands of IT companies account for a steady increase in exports and GDP, and greater potential comes from research in the specialized fields of several universities and colleges.
In fact, it is not only Lithuania, there are many small countries in the world, which are always playing a balance between two big countries, or want to introduce the power of an extraterritorial power to balance the powerful countries in the region. For example, the Philippines, Vietnam, Ukraine, Poland, etc. However, such countries are often "betrayed" by foreign powers as soon as possible, and once they encounter major difficulties and crises, they will basically not be taken care of. A typical example is Georgia and Ukraine, once something happens, the United States and Europe will not help, which is also the sadness of this kind of small country, it is better to cooperate with the big countries around them, reasonable and responsible, neither humble nor arrogant, and still can get development space and dividends.